National group urges WMU to reconsider demolition

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — The Houston Astrodome, one-room schoolhouses in Montana and a lighthouse on the island of Martha’s Vineyard all made this year’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places.

Western Michigan University’s historic East Campus did not, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette ( http://bit.ly/10l7VJd ).

But, in a letter to President John Dunn dated June 18, the National Trust for Historic Preservation said it gave serious consideration to adding the four buildings to the list. Questions of timing kept it from a spot, not historic merit, the letter said.

“At the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we seriously considered placing Western Michigan University’s historic East Campus on our `America’s 11 Most Endangered List,”’ wrote John Hildreth, vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Our understanding that the buildings might be demolished before we go to press made that recognition impossible. However, that does not diminish our concern.”

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Phase 1 of the demolition isn’t due to start until late this summer, according to WMU.

While the list came out June 19, the 11 sites were chosen before the university released its demolition timeline in late May, explained Genell Scheurell, senior field officer in the NTHP’s Chicago Field Office.

The letter commended Friends of Historic East Campus, which nominated the buildings for America’s Most Endangered Places, for its campaign to find an adaptive reuse for the buildings and said the NTHP “strongly” supports FOHEC’s suggestion that WMU delay demolition and convene a community consultation panel to find alternate suggestions for use.

“We hope the university will reconsider its current plans and we will be happy to assist it and the community to come together now to identify how all of East Campus may be returned to productive use,” the letter concluded.

The letter to WMU offering NTHP assistance was unusual, but not unique, Scheurell said.

“They are just breathtakingly beautiful buildings and certainly worth saving,” said Scheurell. “It wasn’t extraordinary, but it’s not something we do as a matter of course.”

WMU’s administration said it received the NTHP’s letter on June 24.

The decision to save just the core of East Hall, which will be renovated and turned into an alumni center, came after more than a decade of community input, the administration said.

“The statement that the community has not been engaged — I don’t think that’s true. I think there have been a number of initiatives where there was ample opportunity,” said Bob Miller, associate vice president of community outreach.

The problem, he said, has not been a lack of ideas of what could be done with East Campus; it’s been a lack of money.

“There has never been a shortage of ideas. There have been a myriad of ideas,” said Miller. “What there has been a shortage of — what there has been an absolute lack of — is a viable funding model to pay for these ideas.”

A feasibility study more than a decade ago found that turning the buildings into classroom or laboratory space would cost several times the cost of new construction, Miller said. Around the same time, then-WMU President Elson Floyd rejected the idea of turning one or more of the buildings into administration space, based both on cost and the buildings’ more remote location from the main campus, he said.

Miller also served as co-chair of the East Campus Redevelopment Task Force, whose members included the director of community planning and the director of historic preservation for the city, as well as members of FOHEC, Kalamazoo residents, students, faculty, administration and staff, he said.

That task force ended up sending out requests for proposal that led to the selection of a proposed multi-use, boutique hotel project, which was scuttled after the loss of historic preservation and brownfield redevelopment tax credits in 2012. In December of that year, WMU announced its decision to demolish three of the four buildings and turn the core of East Hall into the alumni center.

“To those who plead `Save East Campus,’ I would say, that is exactly what we are doing,” wrote Dunn in an opinion article in the Gazette in May. “We are following the advice of those who warned us we must act now to save what’s most important, or risk losing it all. To do nothing might quell the angst of some, but serve only to allow the slow erosion of all the structures, including the jewel in the crown, East Hall.”

The university currently spends about $250,000 annually on East Campus in utility and maintenance costs, Miller said.

“The president made the decision that we would use the dollars that we now spend, in essence, on empty buildings to pay for the cost of renovating the core of East Hall,” said Miller.

The project initially will be paid for through bonds, which were approved at the WMU Board of Trustees’ June meeting, but the yearly cost savings would eventually help the university recoup the renovation costs, Miller explained.

“We can’t save everything, so we’re going to save something while there’s something left to save,” said Miller. “We’re saving the birthplace of the university, which is East Hall.”

But why not delay demolition of the other three buildings for a year to see if the community has any new ideas, asked David Brose, president of FOHEC.

“There’s no rush to do this. You’re not going to save any money for the next 10 years,” said Brose, once cost is factored in for demolition. “Why not defer it a year or two and see what the community says?”

Dunn has reiterated his concern that students must be placed above other priorities, Miller said.

“As the president has said, in terms of funding, the students and their needs will always come first,” said Miller. Based on the cost, “the feeling was that would not be the most responsible use of taxpayer money, as well as tuition dollars from students and their families.”

The NTHP letter is unlikely to prompt the university to reconsider, Miller said.

“The university absolutely respects people’s opinions and their feeling that the buildings should be saved,” said Miller. “We’re very respectful of their rights to disagree, but the president has made his decision.”